Today I thought to answer another of the #AMA questions floating around.

“What’s the best music-related experience of your life so far?”

Narrowing my answer down to just one person or act is impossible given the sheer number of concerts I’ve been to over the course of a long life (so far). I could say the best was meeting, inadvertently, the Rolling Stones when I was about 7-8 years old, and getting my photo taken with them. Though it’s true I didn’t, at that age, get to go to their concert or see them live on stage. Though decades later, I did get to see them from afar on the Plains of Abraham here, in Quebec City.

Fast forward to my teenage years at high school, and as a bunch of pimply teens, my co-conspirators and I where just at the right age, at the right time, to be around just as a number of emerging and rising stars where still doing small venues in cities across the north of England. And so, I was lucky enough to go see, Elton John (1976), David Bowie (1973), and Kate Bush (1978) all doing concerts at the Liverpool Empire theatre back in the day.

Not only that, we got front row seats thanks to Janet Griffiths’ father who knew someone who worked in the box office. So that our little group of four were there, right up close and personal with our musical heroes of the day!

I mean, come on, how do you choose between those three stars? Each was amazing in their musical performance, and sent shivers down my spine. David Bowie doing his Ziggy Stardust tour, Elton John playing songs from his Captain Fantastic & The Brown Dirt Cowboy album, and Kate Bush ending her concert with Wuthering Heights.

I, of course, went on to see so many more great concerts, I remember an outstanding performance, in Germany, by Emerson, Lake and Palmer during the late 70s and another with the Moody Blues. So many great bands, so many great singers, so many great performances.

𖡼.𖤣𖥧𖡼.𖤣𖥧

Another question I got asked for Annie’s #AMA (Ask Me Anything) challenge was from Annie (yes, another Annie), she wanted to know:

What is a habit that’s either very long-standing or has had a big impact in your life (or both)?

and

What’s your favourite time of day, and why?

First up, let’s start with the easier question, my favourite time of day has got to be mornings, early mornings. Especially as I have a habit of waking up somewhere around 5am for a pee. Which in and of itself you’d think would be annoying but … I’ve learnt to turn around what was once an annoyance to a positive. I now take the time to open the curtains and peak outside, and spend a couple of minutes marvelling at the world beyond. Sometimes I give up any thought of going back to bed and, instead, brew a cup of green tea, sit on the couch with a blanket, and either read or just stare out into the dark pondering life’s mysteries.

It’s funny what pops into your head when you stop thinking about anything specific.

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The first question I got asked for Annie’s #AMA (Ask Me Anything) challenge earlier this year, was from Lou Plummer in which he asks:

“If you could work as a tour guide in one of the places you’ve traveled to, where would you pick? And why?”

Of course, for me, there is only one place and that’s Singapore. An island that was a huge part of my impressionable childhood years, those years from 8 through to 11. As an adult I’ve dreamed of and yes schemed to get back there for a visit, though it’s true the island I remember has changed, vastly, in the intervening years. And what was once a place of idyll life for me, is now a roaring metropolis of the 21st century, a tech hub, a tourist mecca, but still … As a tour guide? Hmm …

All those flashy hot spot amid the history and splendour of a place I remember maybe gives me a different perspective to be a Tour Guide. One able to recount the history in a way others cannot. I remember the riots during the 60s, I remember the civil unrest, I remember people being shot at, the undeclared war going on in the shadows between super powers like the US and UK, pushing to influence a people who wanted nothing to do with the colonialism of the day.

It’s easy to be a tour guide taking people to the Botanic Gardens, or to the Raffles Hotel, or one of the latest landmarks … but what about the advance of the Japanese on Singapore during WWII, or what happened at Changi prison? Or that, as a child, my parents and I met the Prime Minster of the day, Lee Kuan Yew.

I wonder if I would be an interesting tour guide or not, given maybe the average tourist probably wouldn’t want to know any of the painful history of this tiny nation island.

But then again, who knows.

𖡼.𖤣𖥧𖡼.𖤣𖥧